Six Secrets for Mastering the Art of Sales and Persuasion

Sometimes the sexiest person in the room isn’t the most attractive one. Sometimes it’s the person who looks you in the eyes during the conversation, pays attention to everything you say, and listens intently.

Same goes for sales. Make someone feel like the most important person in the room, and if your product’s a match for their needs, they’re as good as yours. Establish your path to closing the sale in advance by incorporating any or all of these six secrets into your client interactions.

1. Find common ground.

When you establish common ground with another person, you close the gap of unfamiliarity between you.

They become open to you, and are more receptive to what you have to say because you have things in common.

2. Mirror and match their body language.

Mirroring someone’s posture and body language puts you in a subconscious rhythm with you. It’s part of the connection dance.

As you guys mirror and adapt to each other, there’s a strong sense of connection and familiarity that builds throughout the experience. I find this is helpful for building trust.

3. Dress to their perceptions.

Looks aren’t everything, but first impressions last forever.

You may prefer to be all laid back, chilling in your PINK sweats with your hair tied back and no makeup on, but that’s not going to get you any sales or influence if you’re client expects you to have a more professional profile.

Study what the top leaders in your field wear, mold your outfits and appearance to reflect this, and add a pop of distinct personality. And remember, if you’re trying to keep a clean image, keep the cleavage to a minimum.

4. Demonstrate you have the solution to their problem.

People don’t give sh*t about what you’re selling. They only care about what you can do for them, and how your product solves their problem.

Do your body scrubs improve skin conditions such as psoriasis or eczema?

Are your essential oils pure and safe for human consumption in case someone’s baby tries to drink from the bottle?

Are your recipes guaranteed to turn a man out and make any woman who cooks them entice a man to beg her hand in marriage?

5. Do something nice for them.

I mean, doing good deeds is awesome for karma, however, when you’re nice to people, it incites them to open up to you. Do this from the heart.

Yes, you want the benefits of their business – because, let’s face it, their business makes you immediate money – but the truth is, sometimes your influence is much more far-reaching when you’re an awesome person to begin with.

6. Care about the client more than you care about the commission.

This builds on what I said in the previous section.

When you care more about someone than you do the money you can make from them, the effects are far-reaching.

People don’t feel like a line item or commission, and they are much more friendly and responsive once they know you’re genuine. In fact, the secret to repeat business is investing in the relationships you build for the long term as opposed to the immediate sale.

BONUS: Be funny!

It’s human nature to love to laugh. Put a smile on people’s faces for the right reason and it encodes their memory of positive thoughts of you.

Customers love to do business with salespeople who make them happy – so guess what that means? It’s your job to make them happy, make them laugh, and put smiles on their faces to smooth your interactions and build connections.